1. Field of the Invention
My invention relates generally to aiding and hauling handicapped persons and more specifically to a pool lift to move handicapped persons into and out of an in-ground swimming pool.
2. Description of Prior Art
Exercise in water of a pool has long been recognized as a beneficial type of physical therapy for persons having temporary and permanent disabilities. This type of therapy provides buoyancy in a more dense fluidic medium that removes or lessens more of the forces on a human body than it endures when supported on a rigid surface of a terrestrial environment in a gaseous environment. At the same time the fluidic medium provides more resistance to body motion to beget more exercise than the same motion would beget in a gaseous terrestrial environment. Moving a disabled person between a terrestrial environment and the fluidic environment of an in-ground swimming pool creates various problems, however, and responsively various transfer devices and methods have heretofore become known, many of which are particularly related by their structures to the nature of the disability of the person to be moved and the particular structure of the pool and its environs into which and from which the patient is to be moved. The instant invention provides a new and novel chair-type lift that is of a sufficiently generic nature as to be usable by disabled persons with a substantial range of disabilities and differing biologic characteristics for ingress into and egress from substantially any swimming pool type and size of modern use and construction.
A pool lift must move a user both vertically and horizontally to accomplish its purpose of providing for user ingress into and egress from a pool. Many earlier pool lifts provided a vertical pedestal supported in a pool chamber on the pool side or pool bottom to extend spacedly above a surrounding pool deck with a chair user support carried by a vertically movable portion of the pedestal or by a hoist carried on the upper portion of the pedestal or on a laterally extending beam supported by the upper portion of the pedestal. The chair user support then was pivotally moved in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis between loading and unloading positions which commonly was accomplished by some type of pivoting structure between the vertical pedestal and the chair user support or between the vertical pedestal and its support. These vertical pedestal type supports tend to be massive, often are sufficiently complex or such structure as to require the services of an attendant, were normally of a permanently installed irremovable nature and suffered maintenance and durability problems, especially by reason of continuous emersion in pool water. The instant pool lift is distinguishable from this prior type of pool lift by being removably supported on a pool deck spacedly adjacent a pool side for pivotal motion of a chair user support into the pool water so only the chair user support is immersed in the water environment for only a limited period of time at or between placement of a user into the pool water and removal of the user from the pool water.
Responsive to the foregoing problems various pool lifts having pedestal structures of some type that are mounted in or on a pool deck became known. With these deck mounted pool lifts some portion of the vertical support pillar, or the chair user support, still needed to pivot in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis between a loading and unloading position for use. This combination of horizontal, vertical and pivoting motion still requires complex mechanisms for its accomplishments and these deck supported lifts thus retained structural, mechanical, and operational problems of prior pool lifts having vertical pillars installed wholly or partially in the pool water. These prior pool deck supported lifts still generally require the assistance of an attendant for operation, unless their mechanisms are sufficiently complex to make them cost prohibitive, and most of this type of pool lift still are of a permanent non-movable nature.
The instant pool lift is distinguishable from the prior pedestal type pool lifts in providing a lift frame that is pivotally mounted on a base supported on a pool deck spacedly adjacent the pool edge for pivotal motion in a vertical plane about an elongate horizontal axis that is substantially parallel to the adjacent pool edge and only slightly above the pool deck level. The chair user support of the instant lift is of a chair type and is mounted on a bracket on the upper pool facing portion of the lift frame on an axle that extends horizontally and parallel to the axle interconnecting the base with the lower inner end portion of the lift frame. Further, the chair user support does not pivot in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis when it moves between its upper inward deck access position and its lower outward pool access position.
The particular motion and arcuate shape of the lift frame of the instant pool lift allows it to be of a smaller, more simple and more compact nature than prior pool lifts. The instant pool lift may be fastened to the pool deck for use by bolts or similar fasteners extending through the base and into secure engagement with fasteners carried within the pool deck structure or it may be supported on the pool deck by its own weight or by additional auxiliary weights without mechanical fastening to the deck. The pool lift provides wheels carried on its base to aid its locomotion to and from its mounting or use position. This configuration allows the pool lift to be mounted or supported on a pool deck so that it can be easily moved between a storage position remote from the pool and the pool deck when not required for use.
Various prior pool lifts have been powered by hydraulic systems, generally at relatively high pressures as the structure of such prior lifts often would not allow use of larger hydraulic cylinders that operated at lower pressures. The instant lift structure is of a relatively simple compact nature that does allow for the use of larger hydraulic cylinders and is powered by an ordinary pressurized household water system having water pressure of between approximately thirty and ninety pounds per square inch. This type of low-pressure hydraulic powering system allows use of a less expensive cylinder, provides more maintenance free operation than high-pressure systems and does not require its own pressurizing system. The particular structure of the instant pool lift and its powering system yet allow substitution of high pressure hydraulic cylinders, and known motor powered extensive devices such as screws, rach and pinions and the like. The lower pressure household water supply powering system is preferred over various electrically powered systems as it provides no possibility of electrical shorting problems in the often-wet environs of a swimming pool.
The instant pool lift uses a chair user support formed of molded plastic for greater durability and lower maintenance in the wet environment in which it is used. The molded plastic chair user support also provides fastening structures that allow simple releasable mounting and replacement, also allow formation of strong and durable connecting structures that provides the necessary reliability that is required for apparatus to be used by disabled persons. At the same time the chair user support allows use of safety and control devices and user comfort structures known and desired in contemporary supports for disabled persons.
Since the angular orientation of the chair user support relative to the lift frame and the base varies as the support moves between a position above the pool deck to a position therebelow in the pool cavity, the chair user support is pivotally mounted on the lift frame and its pivotal motion mechanically controlled to maintain a horizontal support orientation throughout the course of the support motion to provide necessary safety of use by a disabled person. To maintain the horizontal orientation of the chair, the pool lift provides a chair flexible push-pull orienting cable carried for axial motion within a flexible supporting tube. The chair orienting cable is interconnected at a first end to a radially extending lever irrotatably carried by the axle connecting the lift frame and the base, and interconnected at a second end with a radially extending lever carried by the axle carrying the chair user support at the upper outer end of the lift frame.
The instant invention lies not in any one of the foregoing features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures that necessarily give rise to the functions flowing therefrom as herein specified.